It may be surprising to know that I come to my site almost daily. Not to finally get off my butt and share something. Instead I just click on my blogroll links and read about everyone else's interesting life. It's not just a busy schedule that keeps me away these days. It's also the feeling that everyone has a blog. And I mean EVERYONE! I don't fault anyone for that, no matter their reasons for joining this huge club. That's just a fact. I often feel like, "what could I possibly have to add?" And, then I let another day slip by without sharing.

I will admit to loving this forum for keeping my far away friends and family up to date on what is going on in our world. I am under no illusion that I will become famous for what I write about here, or that droves of readers from around the globe will click over to find out what riveting plans we have for our next family trip, DIY project or craft session with the kids. Like so many other bloggers out there, this is my way of letting folks into my world and life without using up all of our phone time on why I chose the paint finish used in the bathroom remodel, or all the tweaks that were necessary to get a recipe just right. It's also the best way I have found of preserving some of our little family memories since I almost never remember to write anything down any where else. (Both baby books look like what I imagine forth and fifth siblings get from their poor bedraggled moms when all is said and done.)

I miss being here and recording what is going on in our lives. But, there is something I refuse to miss even more.

My kid's at this age.

There are days when I spy my lonely desktop from across the room and pine for the time to steal away and write about the past year or so that is just slipping through my fingers faster than I can see, let alone grab. Then I look at those little smiles, the tiny feet, itty bitty fingers and realize I need to enjoy this time now. Rather than look at my life in pictures later, I need to be present today without the camera in front of my face. I had a dream that my kids were asked to make drawings of their family at school. Both came home with sweet little crayon scribbled portraits and both had replaced my head with a camera view from the lens end. I don't need a dream dictionary or psychologist to figure the meaning of that one out. Although, with that being said I do actually hope to take more pictures going forward. There are some expressions my little girl has already started to lose just because her baby fat is melting away and if I cut the curls of my son's hair short he instantly becomes a mini-man before my eyes.

I want to capture more moments, both here at the blog and through my famously CSI style photos, but mostly by experience.

All of this to say, that I may be out of commission right now, but I have not forgotten this love of mine and I will make a better effort to share more going forward.

Spring seems to have finally arrived here in Richmond, VA and it was time to move on from our Valentine’s Day Heart wreath to something a little less holiday inspired. Since Easter moves between the months of March and April I thought it would be nice to have something generic to welcome the season.

With the popularity of monograms, I have noticed a lot of photos out there of large letters being used in various decorations throughout the home and I had been toying with the idea of adding a large “H” some where in our home. Then I ran across the Jo-ann’s Fabric and Crafts Create With 8 contest and decided the time had come.

The contest requires you to choose 8 items from a list of 20 to create some kind of craft. I thought what a fun little challenge and way to come up with something new for our front door. I used the following items from the list:

1. Styrofoam

2. Acrylic Paint

3. Yarn

4. Scrapbook Embellishments/Stickers

5. Wooden Shape Cut-outs

6. Floral Stems

7. Wooden Beads

8. Ribbon

I cut the Styrofoam block into the shape of an “H”, being sure to cut it a little smaller so that the bulk of the wrapped yarn would not make it look clunky. Note: do this outside. It’s a mess that keeps on giving if you know what I mean.

Then I began the process of wrapping the “H” form with the yarn. I got lucky with this part of the process. First, the yarn was on sale- score! It also had a base of green with light to dark purple running through it, along with a bluish gray in an ombre effect. The green is nearly identical to the green of the foam, so I did not have to paint the base or double up on the yarn wrapping to get good coverage.

If interested in how I wrapped the letter read on, otherwise skip on down. Starting with the left long side I went from top to bottom the long way. Then went back and ran the yarn sideways from top to bottom, going all the way across to the other long side when I got to the middle section. After completing the left long side I wrapped the right long side from top to bottom the long way. The middle section was next and I wrapped top to bottom and left to right. Last, I wrapped the right long section, going side to side and from top to bottom, skipping the area that connected to the middle section. That meant I was left with a weird area that did not match up to the rest of the yarn pattern, but it was in the area that would be covered with the flower arrangement. I secured the corners at the back with pins and then used Aleene’s Tacky Craft glue to permanently hold the yarn ends and any other areas that were trying to come undone. I also ran a thick line of craft glue all the way down and along each section on the back side to prevent the yarn from coming apart.

After painting the wooden beads pale blue and white I used hot glue to add them around the back border of the “H” form. Once the glue was dry I went back and blobbed paint into and over any open bead holes to give them a more solid sphere look.

Then I just arranged the floral stems, a purple thistle type flower and a willow branch, and secured them with a huge glob of hot glue. To make it look like the flowers are attached with the blue burlap ribbon I cut a section and crisscrossed it over the area where I blobbed the glue. It helped to cover up the mess. Then I cut another section to create a tied bow and glued that in place.

For the “ello” part of the “Hello” greeting I painted a flower wood shape pale blue and a large circle wood shape white, gluing the circle on top of the flower when the paint was dry. Then I hand painted the “ello” message. Once it was all dry I used hot glue to fasten the whole thing to the ribbon. For a little more springtime inspiration I added some embossed metal butterfly scrapbook stickers that I touched up with some white paint. The paint was just to give them more dimension from farther away. The last thing was to add the bit of leftover burlap ribbon for a hanger and I cinched some pale brown satin ribbon into a bow with streamers at the hanging point to add a little more color.

If you feel so inclined, I would love to get your vote over at the contest site. Just click on the link below to go to my entry. You can vote every day until the end of the month.

Yep, it’s another door ornament, but it is super cool, right? Our old Christmas wreath has seen better days and I was ready for something new, including a small project to tackle. I saw this pic on Pinterest,

and could not resist the upgrade to our decor. Unfortunately, what seems like a nearly endless amount of searching has not resulted in the original maker of this wreath. I even tried a “Google” image search, but this has been a very popular pic and the search just pulled up hundreds of other sites that used this same image. Whoever came up with this design….THANK YOU!!! It’s super easy, super cute and works great for dark doors on houses that sit back from the road. You could actually see this wreath from the street, which was a nice effect our set back.

To make this door decor I started at the craft store to buy the wreathes. I ended up having to go to both Michael’s and Joann’s to get three that were the right dimensions next to each other. In my memory I knew there were what looked like three ornaments hanging down from the neck to act as the buttons on his belly. When I was looking through the Christmas decor isle at Michael’s I came across a doorknob hanger with metal holly leaves and berries and three large bells hanging down. After snagging this item on sale and thinking I was brilliant, I took a closer look at the inspiration picture and realized it was exactly what the creator used in the original. Wah-wuh…. so much for creativity!

I did manage to find a plaid scarf and black hat at the thrift store for a couple of bucks, making this one of the few projects I have completed from mostly complete objects.

If you read this blog or know me and my frugal ways, you are aware that I sometimes go to great (and ridiculous) lengths to create decor from the scratch items I have around my place. I will admit that once the wreaths were sprayed white, putting the whole thing together took less than 10 minutes. There is definitely a lot to be said for having all the parts ready to go from the beginning.

I do believe we got a lot of bang for our financial and time buck! Oh, and a cute little addition thrown in to the image background for good measure.

Did you guys make anything new for your Christmas decor this past holiday season?

Much to my extreme embarrassment I will admit right here and right now that my original, self-imposed Pinterest Challenge involving the frame collage in the shape of a heart remains unfinished. I will say that it is at least mapped out on the wall and about half the frames are hung. They still do not have any of the final photos added, but we are getting there. I hope….

Since that project turned out to be such a bummer, I decided to share posts of a few projects inspired by things I saw on Pinterest, that I actually finished. Just for fun, I will be including the failures along with the successes, so enjoy Post #1!

Halloween Door Décor

That’s right, I said Halloween! What did you expect after a nearly 6 month hiatus? Seasonally appropriate posts- hahahahahahahahahahahaha……….. But I digress……

Then talked to a friend about it a few days later. She mentioned how the gauze on a wreath might make for a cool mummy inspired door decoration. On the long ride home from that visit with her I had plenty of time to think and ended up deciding to go for the door décor instead of the pumpkin. Thanks for the idea, Whitney!

While browsing the $1.00 bin isle at Target I found these small foam wreath forms sold in sets of three.

Combined with some muslin that I had in my fabric stash, I figured I could come up with some mummy rags.

Tearing 2 inch strips from about 2 yards of muslin proved to be just the right amount of clothes for these guys.

I wrapped, wrapped and then wrapped some more. During this part of the process I also wrapped the three together in a layout that I thought looked right for our front door. I secured the ends with glue and added sewing pins at the ends of the pieces that held the different rings together just for extra security.

I dug around in my button stash for some extra large eyes. I ended up using dark green, brown and black 1.25 inch buttons for these goofy guys.

After wrapping the fabric around each wreath I just wrapped random strips around the wreath centers to help create the rest of the faces. This takes some rearranging until you get just the right angles for the look you are going for.

Once I thought I had it all figured out, I glued the buttons in place.

The resulting wreath is a bit more jovial than scary, which is pretty much what we are going for around here with the little ones.

So, here is the first success I had in a while with Pinterest projects and it got some good laughs during the month of October.

For a long time now I have admired those alphabet prints that are EVERYWHERE. You know the ones with the “I”, “O” and “U” in a different color, and the “O” replaced with a heart to reveal a not so hidden message. As the decorating progressed in my son’s new room and the nursery I decided I wanted one for each space. This was one of those projects I knew I could handle on my own and that a cheap Target frame with a matt would turn into a pricey looking piece of artwork.

So, I started with a basic design:

This was originally intended for my son’s room, so I used a dark gray for the letters and a simple deep red for the personal message. Later I realized that I should have used his favorite color, Orange, instead. Later STILL I realized I wanted to use this one in the nursery. However, once I got further along with the nursery decorating I thought it might be neat to use a font with a floral or garden theme to tie in with all the floral prints in our little girl’s room. Plus, I wanted to try switching the main alphabet color to that of the rainbow, while using black for the hidden “I Heart U” message. And, then I found this font…

It’s called 101 In My Yard and I LOVE it!!! I think this piece turned out really cute and will definitely grow with our sweet little girl.

After finding such a whimsical font for the nursery art it seemed fitting to do something equally fun for my son’s room. That is when I switched up the original artwork to what you see below.

I just used Word and the Sybil Green font, replacing the “O” by Inserting a Heart Shape and coloring all of it to match his new space. At first I was concerned about messing up his ability to learn his ABC’s by using this crazy font, but later I realized he knows his alphabet pretty well already and should be just fine.

When he is in therapy later we can talk about this in more depth, I guess.

The frames are both from Target and included white matts cut to an 8” X 10” sized opening, so just remember to adjust your margins if you decide to make one. Two pieces of custom artwork for the price of a little time, two pieces of cardstock and a bit of printer ink, and $33.98 in frames ($16.99/each). Not bad, I would say!

Back in April I wrote about my latest undertaking, the “Big Boy” bedroom that we were creating to help my son give up the nursery to his new little sister. We were also giving up our spare bedroom, which had come in handy for extra guests and served as my crafting and sewing space. More on where I work later, right now I want to share where we are with the space now that the Little Guy has blissfully taken to his new room. First let’s recap where we started with some lovely photos….or, we can just use the usual CSI style crummy ones that I manage to take.

(This was the space to the left as you walked through the door.)

(And, this was the right side of the room, taken from along the side of the bed.)

(A close-up of a couple design challenges in the space.)

The first thing we had to overcome in this room was the heavy floral border and matching “tray” ceiling effect the previous owners had placed up above with more wallpaper and lavender paint. I actually had a pretty easy time of removing the borders and the lavender went down with one coat of primer. Yeah! The next challenge was that all the trim and both doors had been painted with oil-based cream paint making the finish rock hard and super shiny. Just to be sure primer and paint would stick, I wiped the surfaces down with a deglosser and then used a coat of oil-based primer to help seal off the shellac-like paint job. That seems to have done the trick because after applying two coats of the glossy latex, bright white top coat, the finish has remained nice and smooth. I had a fear that after all my hard work the layers would start to peel or run- so far, so good!

Going into this project I knew only a couple of things: I wanted the base of the room to be gray so I would not have to change it again in a couple of years and I hoped to come up with a fun wall design that could stand the test of time as well. Also the Little Guy loves the color orange and insisted on using it whenever asked about his decorating ideas. Mom-inclusion Fail! I really should have known better than to ask him because this meant finding the fine line between nice room with cute accents and bright construction barrels along the side of a gravel strewn highway.

Once all the trim was painted out I used leftover wall color from our dining room to knock out what had been lavender overload. As I wrote above I wanted the walls to be gray, but came across a nearly full gallon of bluish-gray paint in the garage and figured I would just use it instead. The whole time I was painting the color on the walls I kept thinking, “where is this paint from?”. It wasn’t until I completely finished that I realized it was the color I mixed on my own and had matched to Valspar in Eggshell at Lowe’s for above the chair rail. It was also at this point that the paint was drying enough for me to see that it was definitely more blue than I had intended for this room. No worries, free paint is free paint and obviously we like the color. Due to the dark shade I did end up having to buy another gallon in order to add a second coat and get nice coverage all around. I then purchased a can of bright white Valspar paint in Eggshell finish and mixed it with the darker shade already used on the plain walls to create a lighter gray for the horizontal stripes. My original plan called for adding horizontal stripes to the main wall where we thought the bed should go.

Later, I decided to add the same horizontal stripes to the opposite wall too. I figured that way if we changed up the furniture arrangement it would not look as weird if the bed landed on another wall. In the end we have two plain and two striped walls and we are all pretty happy with the look.

The second item to tackle on the bedroom “To-do” list was to figure out how to house his clothes, toys and books, seating for family reading and possibly a nightstand. A headboard and/or full bed were not necessary because we planned to push it against the wall and possibly into the corner. Plus, the twin we were using already had a basic frame and I was able to create a simple bed skirt from a new, but thrifted curtain panel to help hide the wheels and under bed storage. After a few short weeks of Sal. Army stalking I came across this shelving unit that appeared to be just the right width and height for the space between the windows.

Many weeks later, just as I was about to give up on finding a deal, I made one last trip to the Sal. Army and scored this dresser and nightstand set to complete the storage item checklist.

Both are pretty sturdy and I expect that they will serve their purpose well against the destructive forces of an almost 3 year-old little boy.

With the storage issues under control we were then able to focus our energy on the decorating and bringing the seating into the space. After many an online search had failed to reveal a decently priced upholstered and overstuffed rocker, we decided a better bet for our growing family would be an extra large bean bag chair to plop next to the bookcase. I did manage to find a 4-footer online from Comfort Research at a cost of $118.00, making this the most expensive item in the whole room. Honestly, we probably would have paid double for this kind of comfort, though. It’s super fun to drop into when cuddling up at the end of the day for story time.

Although for a while I had a problem with my big belly preventing me from easily getting back out of the thing without help when the story had ended. ;o)

The last neutral decorative aspect of the room was the curtains. Again, I wanted to stick with gray to make things easy in the future, however I did not want them to be totally boring. At the same time I found the brand new curtain panel used for the bed skirt at the Goodwill, I also found a second pair of curtains in a light gray heavy cotton. Since I prefer stationary panels with blinds these were perfect for cutting in half, and trimming out to make a set for each of the single windows.

I chose a border fabric that reminded me of a blown out tweed pattern, with a retro sort of vibe. Plus, in a way it matched up with the tweed-like fabric of the other curtain panel used for the bed skirt. Matchy without being too matchy-matchy, know what I mean?

Since then we discovered several other inexpensive accents in orange by Room Essentials from Target; storage bins, picture frames and a clock.

To add some fun shapes, color and extra lighting we hung a bunch of paper lanterns from Hobby Lobby and Party City and plan to cover the existing overhead light with a clear plastic IKEA knockoff from Target. More on that soon (I hope!).

I even got crafty and made him an alphabet print with the “I”, “O” and “U” in orange to spell out “I heart u”.

Of course we kept his vintage globes and topography map (over the head of the bed) and added a light up globe for his nightstand. These all worked nicely since they have lots of muted oranges to add to the overall design scheme.

At this time, the room is as complete as I can make it without starting another big project. I do have some half finished artwork for the wall above his bed and some pillows for the bean bag chair sitting in sewing limbo. The only items we planned to put in here, but could not find space for are his tiny table and chairs. They are still in a state of disarray and sitting in the dormer window of the playroom. We thought they might work well in the walk-in closet, but I think he prefers to use his desk while I am working away at mine. So, for now this set will stay put and get a face lift as soon as possible.

Whew! This has been a long one and I don’t even feel like I covered all aspects of what went on in this space. In fear of killing everyone with boredom I will move on and do a quick “Before and After” post later of several elements. Please tell me what rooms you guys have been working on over the last couple of months. I’m always looking for inspiration.

As many of you know we have a 3 year-old little boy and just welcomed a sweet baby girl. So now you know where I have been lately. Our Little Guy has made the transition to a “Big Boy” room and at the same time he reluctantly gave up his nursery to his new little sis. What that meant for me was a chance to girlie-up the décor of the nursery before her arrival. For those of you that don’t remember, the room had been painted and decorated in blue, white and brown. These colors were actually what I had used in my office at our old Nashville, TN home, so I could see them being used for a girl, but decided I wanted some softer touches and a new look.

(The Little Guy’s space before softer shades took over.)

(The wall colors played well with his vintage globes and teddy bears.)

(As you can see most of the furniture is very simple and modern in design.)

Plus, after nearly three years of looking at all those circles I was ready to stare at something different for a while.

This project began like most of mine, lots of ideas and no budget. Literally I was tasked with making something from nothing. I decided the easiest way to neutralize the blue would be to tape off the center blue band along the walls and paint it out, which would also eliminate the circles and dots, but spare me the need to redo the entire room. In our paint stash I had a can of Oops paint from Home Depot that appeared to be a really pale misty blue-green, which although it may sound masculine, had a softness to it that seemed feminine and perfect to me.

(The furniture arrangement stayed the same- it’s the best layout for the space.)

Unfortunately after taking the time to add the first coat it became abundantly clear that the color was more sage green in the room’s lighting and against the dark brown of the lower band. I was disappointed to say the least. Not only because the color looked so drastically different on the walls, but that this was the second or third time I had made this mistake recently and I no longer had the time to start playing the “find the perfect color” game. Originally I had intended to paint or stamp a pattern along the middle band, so in my mind I figured that might tone down the color, but no luck. So, in the end I sucked it up and realized I could not waste any more time worrying about the color and I just needed to move forward and learn to love it.

It was a only a couple of days later, while rummaging through my fabric stash that I realized I had some pretty cute fabrics tucked away that could play well with the shade that ended up on the walls. So, I set to making curtains, covering pillows and creating some unique artwork. You can find more details about how I created the fabric pieces over at my sewing and craft site, Chic Tweaks.

It was fun digging through my supplies to find vintage pieces to bring out and finally use and enjoy.

Although, I am not a fan of making nurseries super gender specific I did have some favorite fabrics in a nice shade of pink that I thought I could make work with the otherwise neutral space. Even though the furniture is all quite modern I feel like the reproduction fabric prints (from the 1920’s- 1940’s) fit in just fine without being too over the top and cutesy.

As you can see from the shots above, we kept the placement of the shelf above the dresser/changing table, along with all the teddy bears. The bears were gifts from relatives to me and my brother when we were young. Now they have been sitting watch over my little ones. This time around I brought out a couple of the more girlie bears that didn’t seem right for my son’s nursery, but that I think our little girl will enjoy as she gets older. My aunt also sent us my mother’s Madame Alexander doll, which she had been keeping for all these years (at the very end of the teddy bear shelf above).

The doll has been tucked in with the loyal teddies and I think goes well with a couple other vintage pieces in the space; namely the tan bear above which wears the dress my mom wore home from the hospital and the big brown bear who is wearing my mom’s Brownie Uniform from when she was just a girl. It’s fun to see all these sweet vintage mementos coming out from the attic to be enjoyed all over again. The little white rocker was a gift to my son from his Great Grandma and has since been confiscated back to his room. Jealous? Well, maybe just a bit. ;o) The sweet corduroy lion was my son’s gift to his baby sister. He likes to make sure she has it where ever she goes. So, I guess it’s not all hate around here.

I will admit to having trouble bringing all my ideas together in this space. I finally decided to add everything I had in mind and just go from there. That is how the space ended up with a mix of vintage and modern, both in furniture and fabrics. Taking this attitude helped me find a better home for my sweet mounted butterfly picture from the ‘60’s, along with some metal flower hooks I have lugging around for years.

And, for a couple more fun elements I hung a framed alphabet picture that ties in with the flowery garden theme and I strung up several paper lanterns left over from my son’s “big boy” room to act as a mobile above the crib. The lanterns were meant to be used for a shower (baby or bridal) and came with a bunch of paper butterflies to tape into place. I used all 24 of the butterflies to add interest to just three of the circles and I think they work pretty well for a mobile*.

When I originally set out to write this post we were still playing the waiting game and I was sure she would be late. The pink frames are still awaiting shots of baby and grandparents and the hand-me-down toys and books are on high alert for their second chance at life outside the toy box. However, we have already worked our way through several boxes of the stocked up diapers, the dresser that was stuffed to the brim with pink, ruffles and lace has already undergone a weeding out of the too-small newborn items. After nearly two months of use I have to say that the look is growing on me just as fast as the closet is filling up with pretty little dresses all in a row.

Now, if I could just get some sleep…..

Kitsch Krafts

*For those of you wondering, no, the paper lanterns are not meant to be used as a mobile over a baby’s crib. In order to avoid a possible choking hazard if the butterflies were to somehow fall off, I hung them at the bottom end of the crib. This way, if something should come down it will land below my daughter’s feet, and she still has a great view as they twirl around.

PS – Here is the cost breakdown for you DIY nerds out there.

Many items were reused from the original nursery and/or my vintage stash. Here is the list of those items.

Bedding – quilt, bed skirt and bumper (not pictured) These items are pale blue on one side and white on the other. I choose to feature the white side for both the quilt and bumper, when it was in place. The bed skirt is neutral in brown and white.